Page 64 of Unveiled

Cain pulls the chain tighter, letting the metal bite into her skin and begin to take away her air.

“Come here, little one,” Cain instructs me without looking up to meet my eye. I do as I’m told, walking around Christina until I’m standing next to Cain. He hands me the ends of the chain he’s holding, causing me to look at him with confusion. “Hold these, just like this. If I tell you to pull tighter, you pull tighter.”

I do as I’m told, holding the chain with shaky hands. Torture is not something I’m accustomed to, and not something I ever thought I would be a part of. Once the chain is firmly in my grasp, Cain walks behind me to grab something else from the wall.

“Where did you get the key?” I hear him ask from behind me.

“Key? What key? Someone let me in the front door when I got here. You’re acting like I broke in or something,” she chokes out around the pressure of the chain.

“Tighter,” Cain instructs me. I pull on the chain, feeling the resistance of her throat as I do so. She thrashes, trying to get away from the chain as it gets harder to breathe.

Cain finally appears next to me, but after only a flick of his eyes to me, he goes to Christina’s side and kneels.

“Let’s try this again,” Cain says. It’s then that I notice the butane torch in his hand. He lights it, allowing a blue flame to shoot from the opening. Christina thrashes even harder as Cain lowers his hand until it’s under her chair, holding the lighter to the metal bottom of her chair.

It suddenly becomes clear to me what he’s doing. I’ve heard of this being done to people in history, but I never would have thought it was still a method of torture.

He waits until she releases a pained scream before he turns the torch off. It takes a moment for the heat to dissipate, but once it does, Christina slumps in her chair as much as she can with the chain around her neck.

“Give it a little slack so she can speak,” Cain instructs me. “Who sent you?”

Once the chain is loose enough, Christina coughs before she speaks. I can hear the tears in her voice. “Your father,” she chokes out.

“Why?” Cain asks with more calm than he should feel right now.

She juts her chin out, trying to look strong despite the tears rolling down her cheek. To combat her defiance, Cain once again lights the torch and brings it to the bottom of the chair.

“Wait!” she screeches. Cain doesn’t turn the lighter off until she rushes out an explanation. “He wanted me to cause problems, to make her hate you. He wants her out of your life.”

“Good girl, was that so hard?” Cain praises her. I see fucking red. My hands pull on the chains without me telling them to, completely cutting off her air this time. I can hear her choking as she tries to pull on the chains, but I don’t let up.

Still down on his knees, Cain chuckles at my violent outburst.

“Loosen the chain, Ainsley,” Cain commands, making me even angrier. If anything, I want to wrap it around his neck next until he apologizes for praising another woman. Those words belong to me, and no one else.

“Ainsley,” Cain growls when I don’t obey. With daggers shooting out of my eyes for him, I loosen the chain and hear Christina pull in a painful breath.

“If this doesn’t work, did he tell you what his next step would be?” Cain asks, still sounding more calm than he should. Or maybe I need to calm down a little. No, not that. I have every right to be as angry as I am right now.

“N-no,” Christina stutters through her tears. “He just told me if I didn’t succeed, then he would kill me if you didn’t do it first.”

Cain seems to believe this, as he pulls the lighter out from under the chair. “And when is he expecting you back with news?”

“I-I should have been there by now,” she explains, sounding panicked this time. The reason is obvious. She knows she’s failed her task, and even if Cain shows her mercy, his father will not. Not that there’s a chance that Cain would show her mercy.

His eyes are lit up with a mixture of hatred and revenge. He’s plotting his next step, wondering just how long he should drag it out. I’ve already gotten my revenge by making her see that Cain has been claimed, so now all I want is for this to be over so we can go upstairs and I can get this plug out of me.

“If I ask you where ‘there’ is, will you tell me?” Cain asks, already knowing the answer before the question leaves his mouth.

As expected, Christina’s chin juts out as she stares straight ahead, defiance lighting up her face. Cain doesn’t look surprised, and slowly nods his head in acceptance. He’s gotten all the information out of her that he can.

“Go wait for me upstairs,” Cain instructs me without even turning his eyes to look at me. I scoff, but the sound only earns me a glare. “Upstairs, Ainsley. Now.”

Fuck, he’s hot when he’s being dominant, but there’s no way I’m about to willingly leave him in a room alone with a woman he admitted to sleeping with, especially after he called her a good girl. Cain should know me better than that.

To show him he can’t boss me around, I jut my chin out in defiance just as Christina did, and watch Cain’s face fall.

He sighs in acceptance. “I’m going to kill her, little one. I’m going to kill a woman tied to a chair, unable to protect herself. After you see that, you’ll never look at me the same again.”

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